Victories for our right to know

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Senate made the right decision last week when it announced plans to broadcast upcoming budget deliberations.

It balked at the move last session, when the Ohio House opted to stream its Finance Committee hearings over the Ohio Channel (online at www.ohiochannel.org).

Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, offered a glimmer of hope back in January about the possibility of broadcasts. He, Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Scott Oelslager, R-North Canton, made good on the issue during Sunshine Week, announcing a bipartisan agreement to live stream hearings on the biennial budget bill, which is expected to hit the Senate in coming weeks.

“As we celebrate Sunshine Week, there is no better time than now to roll out this real-time access to state government,” Oelslager said in a released statement.

That doesn’t mean the issue is completely resolved, however. Many other committee hearings are still not broadcast.

And that’s just plain silly, given that hearing rooms are already wired and the equipment has already been purchased to accommodate broadcasts.

There’s no good reason that committees aren’t already live streamed for residents to watch.

A bipartisan bill has again been introduced to press the issue. House Bill 108 would require the broadcasting of all Ohio House legislative hearings.

The bill would require all standing committees and subcommittees to be aired for all the world to see.

Sponsors attempted comparable legislation in past general assemblies, without support for passage.

HONORS FOR MANDEL

GOP state Treasurer Josh Mandel had some good news this week when the U.S. Public Interest Research Group ranked Ohio tops in the country in transparency, thanks to the online checkbook (OhioCheckbook.com) launched late last year.

The site enables users to search by individual or company name or agency for state checks issued since fiscal 2008. A “popular searches” feature allows review of spending for travel, food, lottery prizes, sick leave and other areas.

“As other states seek to improve their online spending transparency, they can look to OhioCheckbook.com as an example,” Phineas Baxandall, senior policy analyst at PIRG, said in a released statement. “To stay on top, we expect that Ohio will need to keep building on the strong transparency tools that Treasurer Mandel has already established.”

The Ohio Supreme Court sided with the Cincinnati Enquirer last week in a case focused on a recording of a Butler County 9-1-1 dispatcher.

Justices agreed the recording was a public record — all, that is, except Justice Paul Pfeifer, who dissented.

“I have attempted to make the case that citizens should be free from having to publicize their greatest personal tragedies in order to gain the benefit of emergency services their government provides, but I have also recognized that addressing that concern is an issue for the General Assembly,” Pfeifer wrote.

He included a quote from Thomas Jefferson — “Our printers raven on the agonies of their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb.”

Marc Kovac is the The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.